What Is An Education?

What is an Education?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary one of the definitions of the word "education" is: "The systematic instruction, schooling or training given to the young in preparation for the work of life; by extension, similar instruction or training obtained in adult age. Also, the whole course of scholastic instruction which a person has received. Often with limiting words denoting the nature of the predominant subject of the instruction or kind of life it prepares, as classical, legal, medical, technical, commercial, art education." Although this is an accurate description of what an actual education may be, there is a great deal more to the process of becoming educated than the actual instruction and schooling one may receive.

If you asked a person in high school or college exactly why he is in school his response would probably have something to do with "getting an education." Is that really why he is there? The next question you may ask is

"what are you going to do with your education?" The response would undoubtedly include something about "getting a good job" or perhaps "to make a lot of money." Most of the people in the United States have been brainwashed to think that unless one has at least a high school diploma there is no future anywhere for him. This is completely untrue. There is no guarantee that getting a high school "education" is going to get you anywhere. A student may spend eight years between high school and college getting an "education." He can graduate from college with A's in every class, but still, this "education" means nothing.

For example, suppose this "Straight A" student goes for a job interview.

Obviously one of the first things to be looked at is the college diploma. Good grades, which by today's standards are an indication of an educated individual, are usually very helpful in getting a good job. But alone, good grades are a completely unfair indication of how a person will perform under the pressures of the real world. Instead of looking at a person's grades during a job interview and deciding whether that person is eligible for a particular position, why not try something realistic? To determine a particular person's "education" why not allow the individual to apply what he knows to his position in the workplace.

This is the true test of what an education is. The application of knowledge acquired is a much better determinant of true education than whether or not a person got an A in Wood Shop or World History.

A good percentage of people in the United States graduated from high school.